Familiar Finish for Bears

Ihmir Smith-Marsette's lost ball on final drive seals Minnesota Vikings' 29-22 victory over the Bears.

For the second straight game, the Bears had one last chance to tie foiled by a lost fumble.

In between falling behind badly against the Minnesota Vikings and the final lost fumble by wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette, there was obvious growth by quarterback Justin Fields and their offense in a 29-22 loss.

It didn't soften the sting from a third loss in five games.

"Just overall I'm proud of everybody and the way they fought," Fields said. "We were down 21-3. A lot of the teams in this league would have just laid down and stopped playing.

"But I'm just proud of our guys and the way they fought."

Fields went 15 of 21 for 208 yards and a touchdown in his best passing performance of the year. He also led the Bears in rushing with 47 needed yards on eight attempts after the Vikings shut down David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert, with a combined 31 yards on 16 carries.

"The message for the guys in there was in the NFL it's never going to be perfect and it's always going to come down to the end," coach Matt Eberflus said. "We learned that the last two weeks.

"And we have to make the plays to finish the game and seal the deal. That's what it is."

Fields led the Bears back from that 21-3 deficit for a 22-21 lead but a 75-yard, 17-play Vikings fourth-quarter touchdown drive left the Bears needing a TD.

Then Smith-Marsette lost the ball against his old team after his first Bears reception at the Vikings 39 with just over a minute remaining.

Cameron Dantzler snuck up behind and stole the ball away as he struggled for more yards next to the sidelines.

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"I wasn't expecting that," he said. "I should have went out of bounds instead of looking to extend the play in that situation—be smart."

Smith-Marsette's mistake came a week after Velus Jones Jr. had muffed a punt with the Bears needing one TD and two-point conversion to tie on their last possession against the Giants.

Smith-Marsette also was the one making a key mistake with a holding penalty on a 52-yard touchdown scramble by Fields, but the last mistake was fateful on a drive that had moved already from the Bears 25.

"I think it was going good," Fields said. "I think we had plenty of time. I think we were moving efficiently.

"So who knows what would have happened?"

They needed the comeback because the Vikings came out dicing up the Bears defense with their passing game. Cousins connected on his first 17 passes before finishing 32 of 41 for 296 yards with a TD.

Justin Jefferson hauled in a career-high 12 passes for 154 yards , while Dalvin Cook ran for 94 yards, but the Bears defense came off of a slow start to give Fields and the offense a chance to rally.

"Obviously we need to start better on defense," Eberflus said. "We gave them 21 points on first three drives."

When they got their bearings, the offense struck back with four straight scores. Montgomery ran up the middle 9 yards for a TD before halftime following a 39-yard heave from Fields to Darnell Mooney.

"A big play like that before the end of the second half, it set us up for that touchdown so definitely gave us a lot of momentum," Fields said.

Velus Jones Jr. took in a jet sweep for a 9-yard TD pass. Then Cairo Santos made a 43-yard field goal with 1:09 left in the third quarter to get the Bears within 19-16.

Santos had made a 50-yarder in the first quarter for their first points, then added the go-ahead 51-yarder in the fourth quarter that was set up by Kindle Vildor's first career interception on a Cousins bootleg pass to Adam Thielen.

But the Vikings had an answer with their lengthy TD drive that included five third-down conversions.

"They executed, they did a nice job, give credit to them," Eberflus said. "But like I said, we had the third downs, we had a third-and-four we had a third-and-eighth. We've got to win them."

The Bears now have a short week to get ready for Washington (1-4) at Soldier Field Thursday night.

The message they took away from postgame was not down after two difficult losses.

"It's positive, to me it's positive," Eberflus said. "They're a tough group and they're resilient and they're going to always fight.

"Like I said, make the plays at the end for a different outcome."

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